Happy Feast Day of St. Francis Xavier! Today we celebrate the memory and contribution of this 16th-century Jesuit missionary, who tirelessly toiled all over Asia to spread the Good News.
Today we also announce the winners of the Instagram competition we conducted among our schools in Asia Pacific.
First, we would like to thank our international panel of judges: Fr. JOSE MESA SJ, the Education Secretary for the International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education (ICAJE), Fr. MARK RAPER SJ, the President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, and Mr. EAMONN MCGUINNESS, the Community Director of Educate Magis.
Joining our panel of judges are student leaders from ST. JOSEPH’S INSTITUTION, a school run by the La Salle Brothers in Singapore, where our own Fr. ADRIAN DANKER SJ is Principal. We wanted to make sure to include the voice of our students’ peers!
The PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, as announced yesterday on Facebook, goes to the entry that garnered the most LIKES during the allotted period. The winning entry comes from SACRED HEART SCHOOL-ATENEO DE CEBU (Philippines). Congratulations!
The SCHOOL SPIRIT AWARD is given to the school that has shown the greatest enthusiasm through its participation in the competition as manifested by the number of entries it submitted. The SCHOOL SPIRIT AWARD goes to COLEGIO MATEUS RICCI (Macau, China). Here are the entries that they sent. 加油！
Finally, we are ready to announce the GRAND PRIZE WINNERS of our competition. We have a tie for second place!
The two RUNNERS-UP are the entries from XAVIER UNIVERSITY JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL (Cagayan de Oro, Philippines) and COLEGIO DE SANTO INACIO LOIOLA (Kasait, Timor)。Congratulations for such creative entries!
And the Grand Prize winner goes to the entry from ST. IGNATIUS’ COLLEGE RIVERVIEW (Sydney, Australia)! Job well done, mates!
Here are a couple of comments from our guest student judges from St. Joseph’s Institution, Singapore:
From Bhojwani Yash Manoj: “I hope this helps in bringing unity among Jesuit schools across the world and will be glad to help if there is anything else you need. Once the results are announced, I would love to know who the winner of this competition is and if there is any way that we can be inspired by it to instill community in Josephians. Thanks and see you soon!”
From Deryn Teoh: “Thank you for inviting me to be part of this project. I found all the works of art very interesting and unique, and I think it’s a wonderful project for the Jesuit school students to be a part of.”
The diversity and creativity of the winning entries provide but a glimpse of the diversity and creativity pulsing in all our schools in Asia Pacific. This competition has been a great opportunity for us to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis Xavier in a most meaningful way: as a network of Jesuit schools not only here in Asia Pacific, but also all over the world. The other regions have adopted this competition and will be announcing their winners within the day as well!
Thanks to all the education secretaries and school administrators for supporting this project. We got over 50 entries!
To top it all, Jesuit schools from North America, Latin America, Europe, and South Asia also held their own regional competitions. Click HERE for the story.
Congratulations to all our winners, but also to all who participated and sent in their entries! Thank you for joining us in this first-ever regional celebration of the Feast of St. Francis Xavier! Thanks as well to Educate Magis and our panel of judges!
